In keeping with the spirit of transparency and accountability, today we published our second annual Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report FY2023. In this post, we’ll share what DEI means at Seismic, findings from this year’s report, and our commitment to strengthening DEI at our organization and in the broader enablement industry. 

What is diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Before we get started, let’s first define diversity, equity, and inclusion at Seismic. Diversity is who we are. It’s our backgrounds, identities, experiences, stories (and more) that make us, us. Equity is what we do. We strive to create opportunities and equal outcomes for all. Inclusion is how we work. We want each person to feel engaged and know they belong.

Why is diversity, equity, and inclusion important? 

We take pride in DEI because we believe it’s an essential part of our One Seismic culture. It’s why “we are inclusive” is part of our Seismic values. And, it prioritizes the mindset we want and need our employees to bring to every facet of their work. Seismic is a mission and values-driven organization, and we want our customers, partners, and employees to share a sense of belonging. By embedding DEI into everything we do, we can engage one another with empathy and create a respectful and safe environment for everyone to show up as their authentic selves, which will make Seismic that much more innovative and successful.

Seismic’s commitment to Belonging

We recently introduced “belonging” as an outcome of our DEI journey. 

Findings from our FY2023 DEI Impact Report

One of our top priorities in FY2023 was to improve the recruitment and retention of our U.S. Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, and Asian employees. Additionally, we identified opportunities to improve representation for women globally, most notably in product and engineering and go-to-market roles. 

Over the course of the past year, we made progress in both areas. At the end of FY2023, the population of women at Seismic was 36.8%. As an organization, we also increased representation for Black/African American (+0.8% YOY), Hispanic/Latinx (+0.8% YOY), and Asian (+1.4% YOY) employees at Seismic. 

Additionally, we advanced our goals across hiring demographics. Our FY2023 hires had more gender and racial/ethnic diversity compared to the current representation. Women made up 38.7% of global new hires, and our U.S. hires were more diverse compared to our race/ethnicity representation for Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, and Asian. 

Each of these areas of progress marks a continued commitment to our DEI goals around representation. In addition, over the last year, we have expanded and solidified the structure of our nine CoBs. Our CoBs have provided employees with ongoing opportunities for connection and networking, engagement, and learning. In their first year, CoBs hosted more than 75 different programs and initiatives, and grew membership to 33% of Seismic’s global employee population across seven different countries.

Another highlight of the report focuses on our commitment to global pay equity. We conducted a pay analysis in partnership with a third-party agency to make certain that we have provided equitable programs and pay opportunities for all Seismic employees. The results showed that the steps we have taken worked and that there were no pay disparities across gender globally and race in the U.S. at Seismic.

As we look to the year ahead, we’re excited to embrace new opportunities to make further progress against our representation goals and toward promoting a culture of belonging.  

DEI in the broader enablement industry

As the global leader in sales enablement, we’re not only committed to promoting DEI at Seismic – we’re also steadfast in our commitment to creating a more diverse and inclusive industry for enablement professionals. 

Just over a year ago, we helped launch ENABLEship, a program to train, mentor, and bring sales enablement career opportunities to underrepresented candidates. Since the launch of ENABLEship, we’ve welcomed the first class of graduates and hired three program participants in 2022. 

As we continue our DEI journey at Seismic and within the broader enablement industry, we look forward to sharing our progress and finding new ways to grow as an organization. If you’re interested in becoming part of our journey, you’re in luck – we’re hiring. And, if you’re interested in jumpstarting a career in enablement, we invite you to check out ENABLEship. 

If you’d like to learn more, we invite you to read more in the Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report FY2023. 

The post FY2023 DEI Impact Report: Igniting growth with purpose appeared first on Seismic.

This month, Seismic employees are celebrating Black History Month with a series of speakers, panels, and events. We’re also making a commitment to give back. We will match employee donations to Code 2040, an organization committed to the equitable distribution of power in an economy shaped by the digital revolution. 

We’re excited for the opportunity to celebrate Black History Month with all of our employees. To share what’s in store this month, I recently met with Rayana Speller to discuss the planning that went into this month’s events. 

Tony: Will you tell me about some of the events that you’ve helped plan for Black History Month at Seismic?

Rayana: The DEI Council put together a fireside chat with our CFO John McCauley and Deepcrawl CEO Craig Dunham to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 

More than anything, we wanted to celebrate, but we also wanted to give back. This month, we are giving to Code 2040, a nonprofit that is focused on building Black and Latinx youth by helping them build the skills needed to get into the tech industry. 

We’ve also planned a diversity in tech panel with Black leaders who will share how to make the workplace more inclusive for the next generation of tech employees. There will also be a Black History trivia event themed “Black History is American History,” which will celebrate Black Americans as an integral part of American history. 

Tony: How did you select speakers? And what do you hope our colleagues will learn/take away?

Rayana: Donna DeBerry did the lion’s share of planning the panel. We’ll be joined on the panel by top tech industry leaders from Facebook, Google, SurveyMonkey, Reddit, and LiveRamp. We wanted to hear from leadership of color at large companies and have them talk to the Seismic staff about the importance and positives of diversity. We didn’t want to focus on the issues faced by people of color, but use this panel discussion to be a positive reflection about how diversity and inclusion enrich us all. 

We invited Craig Dunham to speak because he is a Seismic alumnus. On my first day at Seismic, I walked into the office, not knowing anyone. Craig came out of his office and sat with me for 20-30 minutes and showed an interest in what I was doing, why I joined the company, and he made me feel comfortable and excited to start this journey. I knew that he had a strong hand in developing DEI here at Seismic and he’s also done a lot of work on the business side in terms of getting Seismic to where it is today. So, what better person to bring in than Craig? As a CEO, he has a different perspective and I thought his voice would be helpful and he was quick to say “yes.”

Tony: How important is it to celebrate diversity and diverse histories in the workplace?

Rayana: I think it’s very important. Most of us grew up in a society where a lot of what we learned wasn’t historically accurate. The history that we’ve been taught has focused on one group of people. So, celebrating Black history is important for us to understand everyone, as well as our shared history. It’s important for older generations who haven’t learned as much about race as maybe they should have. And younger generations have a different perspective – they’re open to learning and being exposed to more about other cultures. 

This month, I want to take the focus off of slavery because that’s not our entire history–it’s a part of it, but our history is so much greater and it’s important for people to see more about other diverse histories like Asian American and Native American history. It’s important for our growth to know each other’s history.

Tony: What historical black figure are you most excited to celebrate this month? What would you like your colleagues to know about them?

Rayana: It may be cliche but I’d say Harriet Tubman. She was a fearless Black woman and it is always–as a person of color, particularly in America – there are different burdens for black men and women. What she did took bravery, commitment, and self-discipline to have the vision to say “I want the people who I left behind to have the chance to experience life as a free person.” The bravery and strength it took for her to do that is something that I aspire to. 

I also look at my grandmother as an influence. She was a Black woman in the South with very little education and she was brave enough – braver than the men – to rally around the people in her community to help the freedom movement in that region of the South. 

We’re grateful for the work that has gone into planning Black History Month at Seismic. We’re also excited to contribute to the great work of Code 2040. If you’d also donate, you can do so at code2040.org. 

The post The importance of celebrating Black History Month appeared first on Seismic.

Since arriving, she has listened to the stories and experiences of Seismic executives, team leaders, and employees. These conversations, conducted as “listening sessions” help form the foundation of her strategy for building an inclusive culture. 

In this post, we’ll chat with Donna to learn more about listening sessions, and share tips for building a more inclusive workplace. 

TS: Tell me about your first several months as the VP of Global Inclusion at Seismic.

DD: My first several months at Seismic have been focused on building relationships, analyzing data, and conducting listening sessions with our employees about their experiences at Seismic. 

I’ve been working on a bottom-up, top-down inclusion approach that involves all of our employees as stakeholders. It starts with getting insights and recommendations from our employees and engaging our leadership team in inclusive culture strategic planning. 

When we think about being successful in attracting, recruiting, and retaining a diverse workforce, creating a culture of inclusion is critically important to employee experience. 

TS: What have you learned as you’ve met with Seismic’s leadership, management, and employees?

DD: As I’ve met with Seismic executive managers, and employees, I’ve learned that our executive team is vulnerable, authentic, and transparent about what they know and what they don’t know about DEI.  They are 100% committed, individually and as a team, to continually creating a culture of inclusion. 

They are absolutely committed to the process, what we’re doing, and what we want to accomplish. They want DEI to be part of the culture and values of the company and they’re always asking what they can do to help.

Managers and team leaders are interested in building their inclusive leadership competencies so that they can fully engage and lead diverse teams. As we attract and recruit more diverse employees into our workforce, it’s important for our leaders to leverage these inclusive leadership competencies to optimize performance and build strong teams.  

TS: Since joining Seismic, you’ve hosted “listening sessions” with different underrepresented communities. Will you explain what a listening session is?

DD: A listening session is similar to a focus group. It’s a facilitated discussion with a group in order to gather information about people’s unique experiences. Listening sessions are designed to learn what we can do better as a company, identify gaps, and take recommendations from employees regarding our initiatives around diversity, equity, and inclusion.

TS: What communities have you and the DEI Council been able to connect with during listening sessions?

DD: I’ve conducted listening sessions with Black, Latinx, International employees, people with disabilities, women, LGBTQIA+, and AAPI groups. It was important to drill down into specific demographics to get feedback on challenges and insights on their unique workplace experience. These communities’ insights provided us with the opportunity to create an equitable plan in seeking ways to elevate the employee experience.

TS: What are you looking for as you host listening sessions?

DD: I’m looking for specific things like common themes that arise from the discussion. We discuss these themes in our executive meetings. It was important to drill down into specific demographics to get feedback on challenges and insights on their unique workplace experience. These communities’ insights provided us with the opportunity to create an equitable plan in seeking ways to elevate the employee experience. They also help us create a strategy based on the top areas where we need to focus in order to make us a better company for all. 

TS: How does giving voice to employees help shape DEI in organizations like Seismic?

It gives employees opportunities to express their ideas, concerns, and perspectives with authenticity, and without fear of social or workplace consequences. That means employees have the ability to influence decisions at work through their feedback. Giving a voice to your employees helps shape company culture and values which are critically important to hiring and retaining talent. 

When employees feel like their voices are heard, it represents inclusion at the highest level.  

It shows that our company cares about the things employees care about. 

TS: Why should other organizations include listening sessions as part of their DEI strategy?

DD: In order to attract, recruit and retain your talent, organizations should create listening sessions as a part of their overall business strategy. Employee feedback should go beyond an engagement survey. You need to build trust with employees by having an engaging dialogue about their unique experiences. Employee experiences are not “one size fits all.” Listening sessions support the overall goal of the organization and give employees an opportunity to be authentic and transparent about their experiences. These sessions focus on listening, learning, and understanding.

Seismic is committed to building an equitable and inclusive culture. If you’d like to join us on this journey, check out our careers page. 

The post The importance of listening to diverse employee experiences appeared first on Seismic.

The Enableship program is launching at a time of rapid growth within the field of enablement. Between May and June 2021, employers on LinkedIn posted nearly 16,000 open enablement roles. Yet, enablement—like many other careers in the tech sector—lacks talent from diverse backgrounds. 

Why we’re launching Enableship

We’re on our own journey to become a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive company, and we’d like to work together with the wider enablement community to do the same. With the support of our executive leadership team, we decided to champion a program that will promote diversity and inclusion in the enablement industry, and help close the income inequality and wealth gap. 

We believe that Enableship is an opportunity to ensure that the pipeline of future enablement talent is diverse, inclusive, and reflective of the evolving American population. 

Partnering with Sales Enablement Society and SV Academy

SV Academy has a mission to empower one million underrepresented job-seekers to forge career paths in the tech industry. They’ve been recognized by Fast Company as the #2 Most Innovative Education Company in the World for 2020, and our partnership with SV Academy gives us the best opportunity to tear down barriers to entry into sales enablement careers. This isn’t about philanthropy — it’s about equitable access to jobs, opportunities, and wage expansion.

Students at the SV Academy are already building the skills they need to jumpstart careers in the tech industry. Through our partnership, students who attend SV Academy will have an opportunity to specialize in sales enablement. 

Sales Enablement Society (SES) is the flagship organization for sales enablement professionals. It is the largest global nonprofit organization for sales enablement and the most active network of sales enablement professionals. As a founding partner, SES will support the program’s mission by validating content, connecting mentors and employers to the program, and ensuring Enableship is truly an industry-wide program available to all who want to participate. 

Democratizing opportunity through learning and mentorship

Entry-level enablement roles, while historically rare, are now increasing in popularity. Sales and marketing are typical feeder pools, but these career functions also struggle with diversity. We have a unique opportunity to change this cycle at a time when the demand for entry-level candidates is accelerating.

The goal of Enableship is to offer training, coaching, mentorship, and a community network to help underrepresented candidates begin their enablement careers.

The program includes training in the competencies needed for an entry-level enablement associate role. SV Academy offers its students 300 hours of technical skills and leadership training. Through Enableship, learners will have an opportunity to specialize in enablement. Program graduates will have the opportunity to apply for paid apprenticeships and full-time roles with employer partners. Upon placement, graduates will have access to 12 months of coaching.

How to participate in Enableship

Candidates who are interested in participating in Enableship can apply today. Seismic, Sales Enablement Society, and SV Academy are looking forward to welcoming the initial cohort soon. 

The post Enableship: Training underrepresented candidates for careers in enablement appeared first on Seismic.